Thought I'd start doing some reviews on MAME ROMS because there are soo many out there and I don't know where to start. I'm more or less just going on games I remember playing in my misspent youth. I figured MAME ROM reviews would be useful for me, so if I do some they'll be useful to someone. By the way, multi arcade machine emulators rule and everyone should get one, so thanks to Mark Skulls for cluing me up on them. Here goes.

ALTERED BEAST

I played this a bit when I was a kid, but I remember it being fiendishly hard.
It's a Sega game which looks a lot like Golden Axe, the two even share a monster -- the beaked whippy tailed things.




The plot is this. Some necromancer type guy resurrects you from the dead to go save his daughter.



The first stage is in a kind of roman graveyard, so most of the monsters are undead. The undead/zombie theme persists through the levels. I guess the Roman thing and the wolves is supposed to be some reference to the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. Don't know really, but it's a cool aesthetic and something for the nerds.



The game is as hard as I remember it being and the game play isn't great, but the monsters and bosses are cool, especially the eyeball shooting one on level 2.
I also dig how, when you kill the flashing two headed wolf, you get powered up until you turn into a beast. The dragon is my favorite so far.



I guess I'd rate it 3 out of 5. The game play could be better and it's a bit too hard for me, but it looks rad, has cool bosses and has a good premise. If you like games with zombies and weird monsters and like a real challenge, then this would be a good game for you. I'm going to keep playing it until I clock it, but I'm glad I don't have to pump 20c into every time I die.



Oh, and as requested, a larger image of my SE OM Flyer.



And here's some chili chocolate skulls -- $1 from the Mexican Specialties store on Celtic Crescent, Meadowbank.